This invention relates generally to the field of locomotives, and more particularly to a system for providing redundant communication paths in railroad communication equipment.
Electronic communication equipment is widely used in railroad environments for controlling railway assets, such as locomotives operating in a railroad system. For example, it is known to remotely control locomotives in a switchyard using remote radio transmitting devices controlled by rail yard personnel. Such systems may include an operator control unit (OCU) or control tower unit in remote communication with a locomotive control unit (LCU) on board a controlled locomotive. The LCU may direct the locomotive to move and stop according to transmitted commands. Integrity of the communication path between a remotely controlled locomotive and a remote controller is critical to safe remote control operations. A margin of safety may be provided by incorporating redundancy in a remote control system, such as by using redundant hardware, software, and radio messaging. However, a federally allocated radio spectrum bandwidth for locomotive remote control communications may not have sufficient bandwidth to support additional content for providing radio messaging redundancy. Furthermore, portability issues and relatively low power operating requirements may limit incorporating additional hardware and software to provide redundancy.